An RT-award-winning literary agent with 20 years experience in numerous genres opens up about her experience and adventures in publishing and the world beyond it.

Saturday, September 27, 2014

5 Reasons Why an R&R Isn't Bad News By Rachel Brooks

An R&R (revise & resubmit) request from an agent can at first seem disappointing to writers. But even though it’s not an offer of representation, it is still taking a big step toward one. Embracing an R&R, rather than getting bogged down that it wasn’t an outright offer, can shed new light on your story.

Here are five good reasons why an R&R isn’t bad news:

1) You receive valuable feedback from an agent, for free, about how to make your manuscript better. Strong points, weak areas, and overall issues could be highlighted (depending on how detailed the notes you receive are) to help take your writing to the next level.

2) You get to do a “test run” of what the agent’s style is with feedback and email communication (although it will probably not be as detailed, or identical, to if you were a client). But it can give you a general idea of whether you click with the agent’s vision or not.

3) You are not committed to become the agent’s client if you’re not seeing eye to eye with the R&R. If you, or the agent, don’t feel you have the same idea for revisions, you can part ways.

4) You get a chance to show off your revision skills, commitment to honing your craft, ability to take constructive critiques and more. This can impress a potential agent, since agents like writers who want to improve and aren’t against revising.

5) You know an agent saw enough potential in your manuscript to look at a revised version of it once you finished the next version, which should be encouraging! You should feel proud your manuscript stood out and that you might still get an offer from the agent requesting the R&R.

I hope these 5 points help the “R&R glass” to appear half full, rather than half empty